Best Monthly Clubs

BestMonthlyClubs.com is the market leader in Gourmet "of the month clubs" and built on a philosophy of providing high-quality, small-batch gourmet products and excellent support to our valued customers.

What you sell / services you offer (brief description of your company):

BestMonthlyClubs.com offers gourmet Coffee, Cookie, Chocolate, Jelly, Salsa and Tea of the Month Clubs at the time of publication. Customers can choose between 3, 6, and 12 month subscriptions.

Each month our customers will receive a different featured selection along with a "Tidbits" description card providing insight, reviews, and recipes.

Have you always wanted to run your own business? What were some of your previous jobs / companies?

A strong desire to create a business model that could be managed from anywhere along with a personal vocation centered around sales and promotion led me to launch BestMonthlyClubs.com in 1999. After college, I had worked for a few technology companies in jobs ranging from selling computer systems in the early 1990s to installing networks for Tandy Corp, eSystems21, and Wizmo.

Have you got any qualifications? Please tell us about yourself academically?

I have a unique blend of business and technical skills which enables me to productize and market technology models. Academically, I received my BA in Business Management with a Minor in Computer Sciences from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota in 1989.

How / when did the idea of your website / company come about?

Sensing a change in business direction with the company I was employed with in 1999 (Wizmo), I began to allocate more time to creative thinking and web-based business models. I also have a love of sweets and gourmet food, and then one day...BOOM! It hit me. I saw so many gift basket sites on the Internet, charging well over and above the value of the contents, I tinkered with the idea of receiving the contents of these gift baskets over time. This type of gift would have much more lasting value than that of receiving a gift basket one time, and would also create a recurring revenue business model.

If you could give readers of this book one piece of advice when starting up a business, what would it be?

I've heard advice before like "you shouldn't be limited in your ideas or, no idea is a bad idea....or, don't ever be afraid to raise your hand." I submit that these are all phony and create a disillusionary picture that anything will work if you just put you mind to it. I believe that you should instead pay very careful attention to what the proposed value is to your customer. If the value is not there, then no matter how hard you “put your mind to it”, success will be minimal.

I also suggest, in the early development phases of an idea, to marry dissimilar things to create the new “thing”. Quantum thinkers come at things from this angle, and I think it is an undervalued quality of a successful entrepreneur.

Who are your role models / mentors and why?

My father worked for 37 years as a teacher and coach at Carlton High School, supplementing his income by building houses in the summertime with other teachers. I’ve definitely picked up a work ethic and a sense of balance and stability, which are vital attributes to have in this “.com” world.

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